Miscellaneous Tips

Unconscious Vs. Asleep

There's an important distinction to make that may not be so obvious unless you've played a lot of Metal Gear Solid. Enemies knocked unconscious (with stars over their heads) are not the same as enemies that are put to sleep (with Zs over their heads) with tranquilizers. Both enemies are temporarily incapacitated, and while the difference between the two states isn't obvious while they're down, when the enemies eventually come back around you'll want to know this.

When unconscious (with stars over their heads) wake up, they immediately go into the caution alert phase. These enemies remember what happened to them before they were KOd. Conversely, sleeping enemies (with Zs over their heads) wake up and may be temporarily startled but do not trigger a caution phase. By tranquilizing an enemy and putting him to sleep, you effectively erase his memory of Snake.

Hold Ups

The benefits of hold ups must be stressed, especially if you're playing through the game without killing anyone. When you try to play the game without killing, you have these options when dealing with enemies:

Avoid

Simply avoid enemies. This is difficult in some circumstances as you'll have to watch behind you to avoid detection from enemies you've already sneaked by. Also, you won't get side benefits from dealing with enemies, such as extra items you steal from them.

Knockout

Knocking out opponents, either with melee combos, CQC hip throws, or with the stun knife temporarily incapacitates enemy soldiers. These enemies will wake back up when the stars over their heads disappear, but this still gives you plent of time to steal items from their bodies (by repeatedly picking up and dropping the enemy or patting them down when on the floor).

Be advised however, that if you repeatedly pat down an incapacitated enemy (asleep or KO'd) they will wake up. Keep a close eye on the stars and Z's over their heads.

Tranquilize

Shoot an enemy with a tranquilizer dart and they'll go to sleep—a head, butt or crotch shot puts them to sleep instantly, while other parts take longer to induce sleep. Like KO'd opponents, enemies stay asleep until all of the Zs over their heads disappear. Until then, you can do whatever you want with the enemy, like move them out of the way or pick up and drop their body to steal items.

Hold Up

Silently sneak behind an enemy and then press L1 to pull out your gun. Snake will tell them to "freeze!" and the opponent will stay frozen indefinitely. While an opponent is held up, you can frisk their bodies to uncover items Snake can steal.

The key point in the above descriptions is that knocked out and tranquilized enemies are incapacitated temporarily, while held up enemies are incapacitated indefinitely.

Enemies will stay held up as long as they don't see you turn your back to them, no alarms sound, and no other enemy comes by to give them support. The first point is especially interesting because you have to make an effort to keep the opponent from seeing that you're no longer sticking them up. If you run in front of a standing enemy with your back turned, they'll drop their hands and go into attack mode.

To prevent an enemy from dropping his hands due to your inattentiveness, push the opponent to the ground before sticking them up. An opponent that's held up on the ground will put his hands on his head, face down, and will not be able to tell when you are no longer paying attention. In this state, an opponent will remain "held up" and incapacitated as long as an alarm doesn't sound or another enemy doesn't come to support them. In this way, you can effectively keep the enemy permanently incapacitated without killing him.

Warzone Difference

Take note that in warzones, hold ups are not nearly as effective as they are normally. Enemies held up in a warzone will constantly look to get up unless you continuously hold your gun to their backs. As soon as you turn around, even if they can't see you, the enemies will try to break out of the hold up. Because of this, we suggest not using hold ups in warzones unless you follow immediately with a knock out or a tranquilizer shot.

Game Information During Mission Briefing

For those of you who are trying to track your progess to unlock emblems, here is the list of items tracked after each Act;